Module 1: Meetings
- We Have Got to Start Meeting Like This! Making the Most of Meetings: Leading and Participating
From the notice of meeting through the agenda to the follow-up, meetings can be effective or frustrating for everyone. Planning is the key to success, so the module emphasizes preparation, such as developing an agenda and ensuring that all roles are filled. But it's not all up to the Chair. In a collaborative meeting, everyone has an active role and responsibility for success. This module includes a simulated meeting, mini case studies and some helpful tools, as well as follow-up activities.
Module 2: Communications
- Straight to the Point: Getting Your Message Across in 30 Seconds or Less
Learn to speak in "sound bites". Whether making an announcement, answering a question for the media, or making a pitch for your cause, you often have only a few seconds to shape and deliver your message. This module helps you focus on what you really want to say, organize your ideas in the most effective way and then tailor your message to the audience and the situation. It includes opportunities to practice, and checklists to help you prepare future messages.
Module 3: Gender Equity
- How Employees, Managers and Organizations Can Prevent and Deal with Sexual Harassment
Whatever your role in any organization, as a BPW member you will be expected to provide leadership in identifying, preventing and handling sexual harassment in the workplace. This module shows you how. It provides plenty of information and step-by-step methods, discussion topics, and case studies for practice.
Module 4: Business Etiquette
- First Impression and Lasting Success: Business Etiquette for the 21st Century
The three parts of this module are perfect for three short workshops of 45-50 minutes each. First, learn how to perform introductions in situations like networking events, then the principles of etiquette as they apply to business meals (Who orders first? How are toasts conducted?). The third part covers the use of email, voice messaging and other technologies to enhance your professional image.
Module 5: Mentoring
- Making Mentoring Work for You: Learning and Teaching on the Road to Success
How do you find a mentor? What should you expect from a mentor, and how do you make the relationship work for both of you? What should you do if you're asked to be a mentor? Women today need mentors as never before! This module allows you to explore the relationship from both perspectives, and identify benefits for the organization as well.
Module 6: Time Management
- Making Time for What Matters Most: Time Management for Business Women
You can't really manage time, but you can manage your priorities and the demands that others make on you. This module shows you how to make the best use of your time and prevent things that steal precious time from what really matters to you. The module includes practical exercises and tips in areas such as traveling, organizing your workspace and dealing with interruptions. You need to make time for this one!
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Using the Modules
How your club can have fun, offer value to your members,
provide service to your community and make money too!
Module 1: Meetings
Here's a great plan to get your incoming board of directors working together as a team.
- Step 1: Do Activities 1-5 as a group (about one hour). Then, draft the agenda for the next meeting of the board, and have the President or Secretary finalize and distribute it.
- Step 2: Hold the board meeting, using the new agenda, and try to apply what you have learned.
- Step 3: Do Activity 7, evaluating your own board meeting instead of a simulation.
Replace Item 7.6 with the following:
List the three problems that occur most often at your meetings.
________________________________
Write a few ground rules for future meetings.
________________________________
- Step 4: Complete the workshop (Activities 8 and 9).
Module 2: Communication
This module addresses the world's greatest personal fear - public speaking. Here's a plan that can earn money for your club. All you need is one member who is a professional trainer or a teacher of English or a "Toastmasters" graduate who will agree to be a facilitator. The self-directed approach is great for club members who are used to working as a group, but an instructor-led workshop will be a sell-out in most communities.
Step 1: Hold a self-directed workshop for club members only. Allow your "professional" facilitator to sit as an observer so she can get familiar with the content and can note your questions, comments, or difficulties as you go through the program. Take a few extra minutes at the end to give her your feedback about the module, including any ideas you may have for improving it.
Step 2: Plan an instructor-led workshop for non-members (women and/or men) with your "professional" facilitator, who can adapt the workshop to specific needs or interests of the audience as well as her own knowledge and style. Since non-members must pay a fee, you can charge anything from $25 to $100 - or even more if you add gourmet refreshments at the break. Advertise the event as sponsored by BPW Canada, and submit a proposal to the BPW Canada Centenary Fund. Chances are your costs (except for food) will be subsidized, and any profit will be yours to keep.
Module 3: Gender Equity
This module offers you a way to team up with other women in your community. Because of the sensitive nature of some of the content, you may want to make this workshop "by invitation only". Select a group that will work together smoothly not just for the self-directed learning session but in the longer term as a network to deal with sexual harassment issues in your community workplaces. Just remember that BPW members can be charged only for expenses (like copying), but non-members must pay a fee for the workshop.
Module 4: Business Etiquette
This module is active and fun. It includes its own "ice-breaker", and has three parts that can be done separately. Each part takes less than an hour so you could use them for dinner meeting programs. Here's how:
September (or when you have a lot of new members or guests): Do Part 1, Introductions. It will get everyone moving around and talking. You can make it even more challenging by offering refreshments at the same time (shake hands while holding a glass of wine!). Then you can practice your new skill once the meeting starts - Ask each person to introduce herself.
- December or May (before one of your fanciest dinner events or Provincial Conference): Do Part 2, Business Meals. At the dinner, practice having a head table and giving toasts.
- April: When you've finished with serious issues and resolutions, end your program year by offering your members an opportunity to polish their performance using communication technologies (Part 3). The exercises are fun to do, and participants will enjoy swapping their stories and tips.
Module 5: Mentoring
Your club and your careers will benefit greatly, and you could even provide a great service to the women in your community. First, have all members do the module in a self-directed workshop. Then, start a mentoring program in your club. Be especially careful to mentor new members and to value the contributions of the mentors. Next, hold a workshop for non-members. Invite entrepreneurs and women in small businesses, because they may not have access to mentors in their workplace. Once you've sold the idea in your community, perhaps you can start a mentoring project like the one BPW Regina has been running for several years, matching students and interns with mentors throughout the community in a formal program.
Module 6: Time Management
This is a classic - but with a BPW twist to it, because most time management plans don't seem to fit the reality of most women's lives. Your club can provide you with a safe and supportive environment to learn time-saving techniques. Once your members have completed the module, have the club adopt a "Tip of the Month" to practice together at your meetings and then on your own at work or at home. Offer a prize to the member who can lose the most time wasters each month and a trophy for the time champion of the year.
Chair - Barbara Ezart